Creeping Death
by Lady Shinimegami
Summary: A year after 'Yume Mi', a mysterious and dangerous couple show up looking for Vegeta. Unfinished
1. Landing

(Before we start, I'd like to say that even though this is the sequel to Yume Mi, it's not necessary that you read that first. You'll just be missing some back story for a few of my original characters. Thank you, and enjoy)

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: Ichi

"DADDY!" Bra screamed from the living room. "Trunks won't let me watch TV!"

"TRUNKS!"

"I was here first!" Trunks yelled back upstairs to his father in defense.

"TRUNKS!"

Trunks mumbled some obscene things under his breath as he walked away from the TV and Bra smiled triumphantly.

"I HEARD THAT BOY!"

"All I was saying is: if I can't watch TV I'll just have to phone Goten and GOKU to see if they want to come over for dinner!" Trunks yelled upstairs at his father.

"TRUNKS!" Vegeta yelled, now a bit more distressed as Trunks walked into the kitchen.

"I'M PICKING UP THE PHONE! I'M NOW DIALLING THE NUMBER!"

"TRUNKS!" Vegeta started to leave his room to descend the stairs; Bulma, also in the room, looked him straight in the eyes and shook her head. There was only so much she could take in one day.

"Hey, Goten," Trunks said over the phone smiling deviously.

Bulma walked into the kitchen. "Trunks, we have more than one TV and you're going to kill your father from stress," she then grabbed an apple and walked out the other kitchen entrance.

"That's nice mom. Wanna come over for dinner Goten?"

"Why?" Goten asked, was it some special occasion? Someone's birthday? He looked at the calendar by the phone. He didn't think it was.

"To bug my dad... bring Goku," he said, quickly wondering if Vegeta would come around the corner and ki blast him.

"DADDY! I WANT TO USE THE PHONE!" Bra yelled now from beside Trunks having gotten bored of the TV.

Trunks glared down at the seven year old. Was she just following him…?

"TRUNKS!" Vegeta yelled, now walking into the kitchen.

"I better let you go… I'll be there at five," Goten said hanging up. He didn't want to be the reason Trunks died.

"She has her own line!" Trunks said holding onto the phone even though nobody was on the other line. "She also has her own TV, she just wants to bug me!"

Vegeta crossed his arms and glared dangerously at his son.

"FINE! I give up!" Trunks hung up and started walking away. "Who the hell is she gonna phone anyway? She's only seven..."

"Hello Pan?"

It was a dark starry night out on the countryside when it happened. Funnily enough, it had been cloudy and stormy for the past week, and just when they get a clear night's sky. Something like this had to happen.

What happened you ask?

A spaceship crashed. This was no ordinary spaceship; it wasn't even of this world. It was very sleek and black. It seemed to just swallow the light into itself, almost like a black hole. So it was very easy to see on such a night.

As soon as the ship was done it's crash course, it stopped moving and the dust settled, a door opened letting an insanely bright light poor out of it.

Then she walked out.

She had cold black eyes and black hair that was done in a braid and then out into a bun. In her hair were flecks of gold; she was wearing a black cloak that was held together by a golden clasp, not quite as dark as her ship, but dark nonetheless.

"Ah… Prince Vegeta... I can feel your presence here," she hissed out, grinning like Vegeta himself.

From behind her a man slowly rose out of the door, he had short spiky black hair and his eyes were black and narrow as hers. He didn't smirk however.

"So Vensu, we finally found him?" He asked coldly, he was tired and wanted to get this over with.

"Yes, we did Sederi, I've been waiting so long for this," she said looking back at him, the smirk only growing wider.

"I'll go get Bori then," he said turning back towards the ship.

She curtly nodded and then looked into the sky.

"Prince Vegeta... I'm coming for you..."

Goten and Goku were making their way up to Capsule Corps, wondering why exactly they were going there, when a bright light cut of both their inane thoughts.

"Huh?" Goten and Goku both asked in unison.

Suddenly two figures were standing in front of them, one female, and one male. The same two figures that moments ago had been stepping out of a spaceship. They gave a quick glance towards the two Sons, then looked back to the Capsule Corps and started walking forward.

"Who are they?" Goku asked.

"Maybe they're invited for dinner too..." Goten said and started walking forward as well, his father at his heels.

"Vensu... he's inside," Sederi said quietly.

Goten and Goku narrowed their eyebrows, thinking that maybe they weren't guest after all.

"Hey!" Goku called out. "Just who are you anyway?"

Vensu slowly turned her head to look directly and Goku, and she smiled. Or more liked grinned, but it just looked so cruel that it sent shivers down both Goku and Goten's spins.

"I am Princess Vensu," she completely turned around now, still grinning evilly.

Her grin looked so familiar to them...

Both Sons took on a fighting stance; their faces were solemn and very serious. Vensu laughed coldly.

"You think you can take me on!" She flung her arms out, parting her cloak to reveal the body armour she was wearing, it was like the armour Vegeta had worn when he had first showed up, only it was fit for a woman and was a startling silver colour. "I am a first class warrior!"

Her laugh continued, and Sederi grinned at her side, he was wearing a variation of the same armour, his obvious fit for a man.

"Vensu, maybe we should just find get Prince Vegeta and-" He started saying, but was cut off.

"Vegeta?" Goku asked, his face looking a bit curious and stupid. "Why do you need him?"

Vensu glared at him. "That is none of your business human."

"Human?" Goku asked, then he smiled. "I'm not a human."

"Dad," Goten warned under his breath, he may not be that smart either, but he figured he shouldn't go around telling everyone they were aliens… then again, these guys were obviously aliens as well, so maybe it didn't matter.

Goten went cross-eyed in confusion, everyone ignored him though.

"Oh?" Vensu raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you?"

"I'm a saiyan!" He said, proudly pointing at himself.

Vensu's eyes went wide and her and Sederi looked on dumbfounded.

"A… Saiyan?" Vensu asked, pointing. "You!

Goku nodded, taking a battle stance again.

Vensu had to restrain what she wanted to do next, because she would have looked like an idiot, especially in front of her mate. She wanted to start jumping up and down happily and maybe even hug the saiyan.

Sederi didn't share her enthusiasm, instead he studied the man's face, but couldn't figure out who he was.

"Uh… Dad," Goten said poking his father's shoulder. The two hadn't noticed something very crucial before, but as Goten pointing to their waists, Goku felt his eyes go wide.

"You're saiyans too!" Goku asked.

"I can't believe you don't recognize your own Princess," Sederi scoffed, accepting the fact that they were both saiyans.

"Hey, wait a second, how can you be a saiyan Princess?" Goku asked narrowing his eyes in confusion. "I though Vegeta was the Prince of Vegeta…"

"Of course he is!" Vensu yelled at them. Where was Vegeta? She wanted to find him and get this over with.

Both Goku and Goten went crossed eyed.

"Vensu, perhaps we should just leave them be," Sederi said, motioning to the door.

"I think you're right…" she said and the two turned and headed towards the door.

A small boy with short black hair stuck his head out from behind the bushes and watched as Vensu and Sederi walked into the Capsule Corps. He smiled innocently and jumped out.

"They didn't find me!" He exclaimed and ran out.

Goku saw the five year old and titled his head in confusion, Goten followed his father's eyes to see the small boy running towards them.

The boy stopped in front of them and smiled again.

"Geed everning!" The boy said cheerfully.

"Uh… Good evening," both Goku and Goten replied in unison, looking at the child in confusion.

Neither noticed his enormous power level, probably too hungry to even consider this cheerful child posing a threat.

"My master piece is complete!" Trunks yelled enthusiastically over the ramen pot.

After his and Vegeta's little squabble that day, Bulma said that they had to do all the work for supper and then clean up. Seeing Trunks remembered the time Vegeta had last cooked, five minutes after the command he was wearing an apron and cooking for the saiyans who would be present.

As for the clean up… well… luckily Bulma had the money to buy new dishes.

Bulma walked into the room.

"What's burning honey?" She asked politely, Trunks shot her a 'glance'.

"Nothing's burning dammit," he defended his ramen. "It's perfect!"

"Oh…" Bulma looked around to see if she could find any flames or burnt things. "Ok… sorry."

Then Bulma left, leaving Trunks glaring after her.

"Well then… she can have the burnt noodles," he mumbled to himself.

Trunks walked in the dinning room with the first few plates, upon seeing her older brother in an apron, Bra burst out laughing.

"Shudap," Trunks said, 'gently' placing her bowl in front of her.

Vegeta shot a warning glance towards his son, Bulma glared at Vegeta, Bra continued to laugh violently at her brother. Trunks sauntered back into the kitchen.

As soon as Trunks was back into the kitchen though, he heard someone walking around, but the noise wasn't coming from the dinning room. Taking a leave from the kitchen he walked into the hallway thinking Goten and Goku had finally arrived.

Instead he walked right into Vensu.

"Ah… can I help you?" He asked, looking at the two confused, Sederi looked beyond angry.

"Can you not apologize!" He roared, taking Trunks by his shirt collar.

"Sorry!… but hey, who said you could come into my house!" Trunks yelled back, not sure if he should start fighting the strange visitors or not.

"Stupid servant boy," he mumbled, glaring Trunks down.

"Servant!" Trunks asked looking insulted. "I live here! I'm only making super because my mom made me and-"

Vensu put her hand on Sederi's shoulder, signaling him to back off the boy, the three looked at the end of the hallway to see none other than Vegeta standing there.

"Prince Vegeta…" Sederi mumbled, and the two were suddenly kneeling, Trunks looked at them dumbfounded.

"Friends of yours?" Trunks asked pointing to them with his thumb.

"Insolent boy! Bow!" Sederi ordered and grabbed Trunks leg, the motion took him by surprise and Trunks fell to the ground on his back and he started laughing like Bra had been only moments ago.

Trunks covered his face with his hands he was laughing so hard. Sure, he knew he father was a prince and all, but he had never seen anybody act like this around him… he suddenly wondered what would happen when they found out that was his dad.

Finally regaining himself, he stood up and noticed all three people glaring at him.

"What!" Trunks asked, trying to look innocent. "Who are you guys?"

They ignored him, Vensu looked towards Vegeta, and even though she felt like smiling, she did nothing of the sort.

"Prince Vegeta… I don't expect you to remember me, but my name is Princess Vensu and we-" she was cut short by Vegeta.

"Vensu?" He said with a shocked face.

Trunks stopped laughing and looked at his father confused again. "You do know them?"

It was then that Bulma and Bra walked into the hallway, after all the commotion they had finally gotten away from the table to see what was going on. They almost started laughing at the odd sight, but thought it better not too.

"Vensu… why are you here?" Vegeta finally choked out, Trunks looked seriously at his father. Why the hell did he look so shocked?

Vensu looked up slowly and almost had a glare.

"You mean… you do remember me, Prince Vegeta?" She spat out cruelly.

"What's going on?" Bulma asked with a bit of force, Trunks shrugged at her, but Vegeta had almost forgotten Bulma was there.

"Then you remember your promise…?"

_Die, by my hand,_

_I creep across the land,_

_Killing first born man._

_Mother Fucker._

(Will this be another angst by Elise J. Haskell? OR, will the humour continue. Who knows! Aoi knows! Ya know… I hadn't planned to stop this chapter here, it was going to go on for quite some time, but alas, I can't stand terribly long chapters. About the attempts at humour here and there, those who read my Fics must have me down for an angsty writer, but I had and have all these funny little scenes stuck in my head, and I wanted to put them in one of my Fics. So this might have a lot of chapters like another story oh mine. So, this is the sequel to the critically acclaimed yeah sure… DBZ FanFic 'Yume Mi', this one doesn't have a clever Japanese title like the last, but is named after a lovely Metallica song. I'm actually only on Chap. 13 of 'Yume Mi', BUT, I had the idea and had to write this out, who knows how many chapters I'll have be the time I'm finished 'Yume Mi', hopefully I'll have it done and then I can edit the bloody thing before I post it. I'm such a retard sometimes. I should get one of you people to edit my stories for me, less work for me. Ya know what's funny, I'm writing this now, and by the time you're reading this 'Yume Mi' will be finished and you'll already know if it's edited or not, odd… very, very odd. Well Anyhoo, maybe I should go finish my other Fic. Oh and by the by, this is my official yet unofficial DB universe. In my mind, DBGT never happened and some of DBZ is a bit fucked. Oh, this happens a year after 'Yume Mi' which happened a year after DBZ by the by)


	2. Close

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: Ni

Deciding that they had postponed their arrival long enough, the two Sons decided to make the rest of their journey up the walkway. But before they could, the small black haired child was tugging on Goten's black dress pants, commanding that he stay.

The two turned to look at the boy and smiled at his pouting face. Because of their smiling the boy also glared, this sent Goten into fits of laughter. It was just so damned cute!

"Don't laugh!" He ordered them, and Goten calmed down and kneeled by the boy.

"Sorry," he apologized and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't you have to get back to your parents or something?"

The boy quickly shook his head.

"Well it's kinda late, shouldn't you be getting back home to them?" Goku asked trying to be as polite as possible.

The boy shook his head again.

"Why not?" Goten asked, he suddenly became worried about why the boy was out here. Maybe there were troubles at the home and the boy had somehow run away.

"Because my parents are not at home," he said quietly.

"Why not?"

"Because… because…" The boy started saying and then a tear fell down his cheek. "Because there is no home to go to!"

Then he launched himself onto Goten and began hugging him and crying quite violently. Goten looked petrified. He had no clue what to do.

"Hey, it'll be ok," Goten said and stood up picking the boy up with him.

"I think we should get Bulma," Goku suggested.

"Makes sense," Goten said nodding his head.

The two then turned and walked inside, the boy was slowly calming down and by the time they were inside, less than a minute later, the boy was completely calm. He sniffed and buried his head in Goten's black shirt. He hated when people saw him cry, his father would've gotten so mad at him…

Goten patted his back as they walked through the building, finally the boy managed to get down from Goten, but he still held his hand. Every time Goku looked at him the boy would look ashamed of himself.

They all heard noises and figured Bulma and them were straight ahead, just as they were turning the corner the boy let go of Goten's hand and slipped away.

"Hey! Dad! Where'd he go?" Goten asked looking around in confusion.

"We'll go tell Bulma and then find him, he couldn't have gotten too far," Goku said reassuringly and they turned the corner to come face with the odd picture, the strange man and woman bowing in front of Vegeta.

"Hey, Trunks?" Goten asked looking at the six people in confusion. "What's going on?"

"I haven't the foggiest…" Trunks mumbled looking at everyone confused as well.

"Uh, what's with the apron?"

Trunks glared dangerously at his best friend, who quickly forgot about the apron due to fear for his life.

"Forget the apron, what is going on?" Bulma asked getting annoyed with the situation. "What's this promise, Vegeta?"

Imagery of long forgotten memories seeped into Vegeta's mind all the sudden. He was a small boy, maybe five; his was smaller of course. She was there too. Vensu was there, only three. She had short black hair and wore simply blue pants and a white shirt.

She was giving him a flower… what had happened to the flower? Something with fire.

"Hey, Vegeta?" Bulma inquired once more, breaking off the memories.

"Have you no respect woman?" Sederi asked getting annoyed with everyone. How could they all be so disrespectful to the 'Prince of Vegeta'?

"Listen boy, I don't know who you are, but this is my house you're in," Bulma shouted at the man. "What are you people doing here anyway? Why do you know Vegeta?"

"They're saiyans," Goku said, smiling.

"Ah, Goku. I didn't notice you there… wait… Saiyans!" Bulma eyes went wide as she stared down at the two.

"That would explain the tails…" Bra said. She'd noticed it, but hadn't been able to mention it because she was so far into shock.

"But… but… uh… how?" Trunks said in pure disbelief.

"What do you mean how? What kind of a question is that?" Sederi asked, glaring at the boy.

"They left before Planet Vegeta was destroyed… half the royal family did," Vegeta explained silently.

"Royalty huh?" Bulma said with a bit of skepticism in her voice, not that she didn't believe this, but saiyan royalty could be so hard to manage with, from her experience…

It was then when Vegeta gave a small cry of shock and swung around into a small boy. Everyone had been too shocked with the news to notice the small boy wander in through the kitchen and grab Vegeta ass.

"He does not have a tail," the small boy from outside said in confusion.

Vegeta was twitching in anger at the kid, nobody made any real reaction to the kid except Goten.

"HEY! There you are!" Goten said and rushed forward picking the kid up in his arms to make sure Vegeta didn't do anything stupid. Like murder...

It was then from under the boys shirt they saw his small tail come out. It had been wrapped around his waist before and the shirt had covered it. But now that it was unwrapped, nothing hid it anymore.

"Another one?" Bulma asked. The stress was slowly building.

Goten glanced around the room as everyone contemplated the situation for themselves, then Goten caught sight of Sederi and held his breath in fear. The man was glaring at him like he meant to kill him and was slowly rising to his feet.

"Unhand him now…" he choked out, his fist clenched in anger.

Goten backed up in fear as he realized the obvious, that man was this kid's father. He tried to fake a smile, but was still sweating. The boy was clinging to Goten's neck, not wanting to be put down.

"Sederi…" Vensu warned softly.

"Put Bori down now," Sederi commanded, still walking forward.

Bulma began backing up and by putting her hands on Bra's shoulders she got her daughter to start backing up as well.

Goten attempted to put the child down, but the kid was showing an amazing strength in clinging to his neck. He could barely breath, but most of that had to do with the look Sederi was giving him.

"Put him down!" Sederi yelled and in a reflex he let his left hand swing out, and it found its way to Trunks nose.

"OW! You mother fucker!" Trunks yelled holding his nose as blood flowed down his chin. "That hurt!"

"SEDERI!" Vensu yelled, suddenly at his side glaring him down. "What do you think you are doing?"

Sederi's eyes twitched a bit in anger, but as Vensu yelled at him he calmed down and turned away.

Vensu put her hand on Trunks' cheek and the other took his hand away to observe the damage. Trunks just didn't move as the girl began to feel his nose.

"Sorry," she mumbled for her mate's loss of temper. "I didn't realize he'd do that…"

"It's ok…" Trunks mumbled, finally pulling away from her. "I'll just go find some ice… or something…"

Trunks quickly turned around and left to find the stairs, hiding his blushing.

"Trunks, wait for me," Goten called after him and began to fallow him, until Vensu grabbed his arm. "Oh yeah, Bori, right? Let go. Please."

Finally Bori let go and got back down on the floor. He needed to investigate things more, being the curious little saiyan he was.

"How dare he pick up a saiyan Prince…" Sederi mumbled under his breath as Goten walked by. "Saiyan or not."

"Well how dare you punch a saiyan Prince!" Bulma shot back, Vegeta was still lost in his own little world.

"What?" Sederi asked, dumbfounded, as he looked at the girl like she was crazy.

"He, along with her," Bulma said looking down at Bra, and then she looked back up at Sederi, "are mine and Vegeta's children."

"Chil… children…?" Sederi asked in shock. "But you… you are not a saiyan... correct?"

"Correct," Bulma confirmed.

"No way..." Sederi said in this revelation, he almost felt like smiling, the situation was just crazy.

"You're a father?" Vensu asked with a bit of smirk. Vegeta nodded in reply. "Well I'll be…"

"Trunks, you ok?" Goten asked, walking into the bathroom.

"Next time, let the kid go," Trunks mumbled, he had the sink running and was keeping the blood under control.

"I tried!" He defended himself. "But the kid wouldn't let go."

"Wow… somebody actually likes you?" Trunks asked, his face in awe.

"Shut, up," Goten said and threw a towel at him.

Trunks blocked it with his hand and smiled.

"You know I'm your hero."

"You wish."

"My Dende… who are those people anyway?" Trunks asked as he looked into the mirror, he wondered if his nose has badly broken. A saiyan had punched him after all.

"I dunno… but I sure don't like that guy, Sederi or something. The kid's cute, Bori…" Goten said, thinking it over.

"The girl was nice," Trunks said, half paying attention to Goten. "She's also really pretty."

"Ooooo, Trunks has a crush," Goten said in a singsong voice, Trunks blushed madly.

Trunks then backhanded Goten.

"I do not have a crush on her. She's a mother for Dende's sake." The blush was disappearing from his face.

Goten chuckled a bit. Trunks rolled his eyes at the boy's immaturity. He thought she was pretty, didn't mean he wanted to marry her. That Goten sometimes, he could be so unnerving…

"If they're royalty, does that mean your dad knows them?" Goten asked.

"I think he knows the girl," Trunks replied. And finally got the bleeding to stop. "There we go…"

"I wonder in what way…" Goten said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean by that?" Trunks asked, glaring at Goten.

"I dunno... he just seemed very out of it. Maybe they had something together before Planet Vegeta was blown up."

"I truly do not think that is the case."

"But they still seemed to be very close."

"Oh, and you can tell this by seeing them in a hallway together for five seconds?" Trunks asked, almost to the point of bitterness.

"They were starring at each other man, really staring."

After Vensu had yelled at Sederi and Bulma had put Bra to bed, even though it was still early and she hadn't finished her supper, she had also put Bori in one of the guest rooms, the saiyans and Bulma sat down at the dinner table to talk things over.

"The King at that time wished to colonnade other planets and sent fifty first class warriors out to do so. Sederi and I included. I was in charge, being the highest of royalty among them, even though I was 3..." Vensu began explaining to them; she looked around at all present at the table.

When she looked at Trunks, Goten nudged him in the arm, to which Trunks kicked Goten in the shin.

"Ow!" Goten yelled out, the entire table looked at him. "Uh… continue." He smiled nervously.

Trunks suppressed his fits of laughter and Bulma sighed, maybe she should have put them to bed too. 20 and 19 and still acting like 6 and 5.

"All went well for some time until three months ago when something went terribly wrong and due to natural causes… the planet imploded on itself. Most people got off the planet, but the shockwave scattered all off us into different areas. We had long since known about Planet Vegeta's destruction…" Vensu looked at the table in a sad way. "We figured they were all dead, but, I could still fell Prince Vegeta's presence."

Vegeta looked up at her. After all this time she still had a bond with him, he had pretty much forgotten her. For a second Vegeta almost felt guilty. Almost.

"So we came here and well… that's the story so far," Vensu finished.

"And now that we have found you, we will leave," Sederi added on.

"You're leaving so soon?" Trunks asked.

Goten smiled, Trunks glared back at him.

"You might as well spend a few nights here," Bulma offered before she even realized what she was saying. She wasn't too sure if she liked the idea of a pack of saiyan royalty staying here…

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," Vensu said looking hopefully.

"I'll go show you to your rooms," Vegeta said, getting up, Sederi looked at him a bit shocked, but Vensu simply smiled.

"I better get going home," Goku, who had been oddly silent, announced. "C'mon Goten."

"Is it ok if I stay here?" Goten asked his father.

"Yeah sure," Goku said, then he said his goodbyes and was gone.

"You just want to bug me don't you?" Trunks asked and Goten nodded in reply. "Great."

Vegeta, Sederi and Vensu walked up the stairs and down the hall. They reached a door and Vegeta opened it, motioning for them to go inside.

"Sederi… go on in ahead," Vensu told him and he left closing the door to the room behind him.

Vensu looked down the halls to make sure nobody was there and then flung herself onto Vegeta, hugging him, the brims of her eyes tearing.

"I missed you so much…" she muttered softly.

Vegeta's eyes were wide with the suddenly affection, but he slowly put his arms around her as well.

"Why didn't you ever come get me?" She asked quietly.

"I… I forgot…" Vegeta muttered out.

"Just don't leave me like that again," she said and hugged him harder.

Bulma looked on at the two in shock and then slowly turned around and descended the stairs. Who the hell was she? Just how close were her and Vegeta? The whole scene had oddly unnerved her.

She continued walking down the stairs, her stare almost catatonic. Trunks and Goten walked by, but they were arguing and didn't notice Bulma's expression.

A knock came at the door for about the fifth time and finally Trunks got out of his bed, only wearing his boxers, and walked across the room (almost tripping over the sprawled out Goten).

"Yeah?" Trunks said, eyes bleary as he opened the door… and found nothing. "Huh?"

Trunks then felt a poke on his leg and looked down to find Bori standing there.

"Where is Goten?" He asked.

"Goten?" Trunks asked. He was too tired for this. "I dunno…"

Bori glared at Trunks and then ran inside, Trunks sighed and then closed the door and began to walk back towards his bed. He saw Bori run towards Goten and then curl up in his arms and go to sleep.

All Trunks could think of was what an odd little kid he was.

(I think I should take this fine time to explain Bori yes he used to be named Tome for all you people who read the teaser. I think I took all four of my cute little cousins and warped them together to get this hyper and yet depressed little saiyan. He's depressed because he lost his only home and his parents don't pay much attention to him. So as he attempted to play hide and go seek with he parents, he stumbled upon Goten and Goku. Obviously listening in on their conversation he figures out they were saiyans he's such a smart little boy and being one of those kids who crave compassion he decided to pick one to latch on. Why Goten then? Well anyone who knows me well enough knows the answer, but to humour you guys: I think if I were a small child I'd be scared of Goku. So that's about it. My Gaia, I was about to snap over all the titles that were being thrown around. Royalty always have to be so formal and shit and after a while I get confused and then go crazy and rambles on before finding some cheese to snack on and therefore forgets all past and current troubles. Now, before you go and start bashing me about just how close Vensu and Vegeta were/are, READ THE REST OF THE STORY. Thank you and good night… or day… or whatever. Sayonara)


	3. Kokoro

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: San

"Bulma?" Vegeta asked, walking into the living room where he found her watching TV. "What are you doing still down here?"

"Watching TV," she answered back, not looking away from the set.

"It's been two hours, come to bed," Vegeta said, ready to dismiss the matter.

"Vegeta?" Bulma asked, gaining Vegeta's attention. "How close are you and Vensu to each other?"

Vegeta blinked at Bulma and then opened his mouth to answer, when he realized what Bulma meant. He quickly shook his head and walked over to her.

"Bulma, she's my sister," he said quietly.

Bulma's head swung around in shock, her face said this very much and Vegeta had to smirk.

"You have a sister?"

"Yes…" Vegeta answered, all the lost memories still coming back. "Father thought the best person to lead the other saiyans was his only other child. Over the years… I forgot about her… No, I pushed her out of my mind."

Bulma smiled back at him.

"Let's get to bed then," she said and the two began walking up the stairs towards their room.

Trunks woke from his not so peaceful slumber with a start. He had had a nightmare. He hated nightmares, ever since he had a very terrible nightmare about a year ago. The thing that really bugged him about this one was how, like the other, it felt so real.

He couldn't remember any specifics that had happened in the dream, but he could remember the feeling. It was like he was completely hollow inside, like he had no hope or chance of living, like he had never known or would never know love.

Like nothing he had ever felt before.

He turned to look at the floor and found Goten still sprawled out of the floor in a tangle of body parts and Bori still cuddled up to him. It was seemingly cute, but the nightmare was still bugging him so he didn't get to enjoy the sight as much as he'd like to.

"Trunks…" Goten mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Trunks asked looking at the boy, he looked like he was asleep still.

"Don't do it," he mumbled on and Trunks realized he was dreaming.

"Don't do what?" He asked aloud, wishing the teen would answer back, but no such luck.

The thought crossed his mind to go wake him up, but as he swung his legs over the bed something else happened.

A loud scream cut off Trunks thoughts and put and end to any motion he was about to do, he looked over to Goten as saw it was Bori who was screaming.

Goten sat up suddenly with a fear stricken face.

"WHAT'S GOING ON!" He yelled thinking perhaps someone was dying, and then he looked down and saw Bori screaming and crying and basically clinging to his arm. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Goten picked the small frantic boy in his arms and started patting his back.

"Trunks, go get Vensu," Goten said.

Trunks didn't move, but rather looked to the opening door.

"No need…" he mumbled as Bulma, Vensu, Sederi and Vegeta ran in, in that order, to find out what was going on.

Vensu spotted her son in Goten's arms and ran forward picking him out of the nervous teen's arms, Bori was reluctantly picked up by his mother and began to calm down.

"I think he had a nightmare," Trunks told the small crowed.

"A nightmare?" Bulma asked.

Bulma couldn't remember what she had been dreaming about, when someone wakes you up, chances are you forget all of that dreaming stuff and just concentrated on what woke you up.

"There is no way my son would act like this," Sederi mumbled in anger and disbelief. Vensu shot him a pretty mean glance.

"How do you know that?" Trunks asked, he didn't like Sederi from before and the man wasn't making liking him get any easier. He was just such an asshole. How could someone like Vensu like him?

"I know my own son," he grumbled back, but did nothing else because of the look Vensu was still giving him.

The man woke up and looked around his room. This wasn't right… How could something like this be happening?

He jumped out of his bed and grabbed his black trench coat, pulling it over his black jeans and black blouse.

"Is it because of Manako?" He asked himself as he ran down the stairs and jumped out the door.

There was no time to waste. He didn't even lock the door to his store, Harmony, as he left. He simply melted away into the shadows and was seen no more.

"I don't believe this…" Goten mumbled partially annoyed.

Trunks, who sat in the driver seat of the car, was trying very, very, very hard not to laugh and as a result drive straight off the road.

After all the upset had calmed down Bulma still made the two boys go to school, and as they were leaving a certain little saiyan grabbed onto Goten's leg and wouldn't let go.

"Don't you like your parents at all?" Goten questioned as the boy bobbed his head to the music Trunks was playing. He looked back at Goten and shook his head furiously. "Dammit Trunks, turn this sh-stuff off before you corrupt the child's mind."

"I'm not corrupting anybody," Trunks said, ignoring him. He had found this CD in his room quite some time ago, he didn't know how he got it, but he liked the music nonetheless. Marilyn Manson was the band's name, he had never even heard of them.

"Yes you are," Goten said and turned the music off.

"Hey!" Trunks yelled and hit Goten's hand, but he didn't bother to turn the music back on. "Don't touch my radio."

"You're such a spoiled brat," Goten mumbled, only to receive a hit to the head. "Dammit! There's only so much abuse I'm willing to take!"

"You're scaring the kid Goten," Trunks mumbled.

"Oh, and you're such a prodigy when it comes to taking care of kids."

"I know a bit more than you my friend. I always take care of that little… kid," Trunks said bitterly, referring to his sister.

"You're going to become one of those bitter old men who throw cats at children who come on his property aren't you?" Goten asked with a serious face.

WHACK

"OW!"

That was basically the mood on the way to school that day… and everyday for that matter.

They finally got to school and as Goten walked to class Bori was still fast on his heels, he sighed as everyone in the hall eyed him oddly. How was he going to keep a reputation up like this?

"HOW CUTE! Is that your little brother?" A very familiar female voice called out from behind him, Goten turned around and found Ashley, from his English class crouched down by Bori.

"Uh…" Goten began mumbling, but Trunks decided to step in.

"Yeah! His parents were out of town so he had to baby-sit him," he exclaimed grinning.

"Oh really? He's so cute!" Ashley began to ruffle his hair and Bori shot her and evil glance, it reminded both teens of Vegeta and Sederi put together.

"Do not touch me," Bori commanded in a cute little adorable voice.

"Awww! I just want to take him home!"

At that Bori's eyes grew huge in fear and he ran behind Goten's legs.

"Make her go away," Bori pleaded silently.

"Haha… now Bori," Goten said smiling sheepishly.

Ashley got back to her feet; she was wearing the normal white mini-skirt and pink tank top that showed she was indeed well endowed. Both teens began grinning.

"You're Goten Son, right?" She asked politely.

"Yeah…" Goten said back in a bit of a daze.

"My name's Ashley, I'm in your English class," she said and extended her hand.

"Oh really?" Goten asked, shaking her hand; Trunks began to crack up behind him. Goten quickly elbowed Trunks, not looking away from Ashley.

"Ow…" Trunks mumbled, doubled over in pain.

"Well I've got to go to class, I'll be seeing you around," she gave her perfect smile and ran off.

"Goten…" Trunks mumbled straightening himself out. "Two things. Why do you take English seeing you fail everything but drama and gym?"

"The chicks," Goten replied, still smirking. "What's the second thing?"

Trunks punched Goten in the stomach and glared, but in a loving way.

"Don't hit me when I do you a favour!" He yelled.

Goten got up and was about to punch Trunks back when they both spotted a teacher and stopped.

"This isn't over lilac boy," Goten warned.

"I'll be seeing you after school then, spawn of carrot."

"Shut up," Goten mumbled when the teacher was finally gone, then the bell rang and Goten, Trunks and Bori ran to their class.

Vensu walked into the kitchen trying to find something to do. She was so damned bored. Sederi was off training, Vegeta too, her son had run off with that saiyan kid and she couldn't find any of the Briefs.

She sat down at the kitchen table, she was wearing a simple black dress, but nonetheless it screamed royalty and her hair was done in four braids, but they were down. She sighed and banged her head on the table. Waiting was boring.

"Vensu?" Bulma asked, walking into the room, instantly Vensu straightened up in her chair.

"Ah, Bulma," Vensu said with a bit of a smile. Someone to talk to!

"What are you doing here?" Bulma asked in curiosity. "I figured you'd be off training with Vegeta and Sederi."

"Well, as much fun as it is training with Sederi, hell, I would rather train with Vegeta, I would go train too... but truly I'd rather just… do nothing…" Vensu said with a bored look on her face.

"Oh… kay…" Bulma mumbled not knowing what to say. "So… you and Sederi are married right?"

Vensu scoffed a laugh.

"I would hardly say that, what First Class Saiyan gets married?" Vensu said smiling, then quickly stopped as she saw Bulma shove her left hand in her pocket. "Oh… you're married to Veggie?"

"Veggie?"

"Wow… he really has changed…" Vensu mumbled staring off at the wall.

"When was the last time you saw him?" Bulma asked sitting down.

"When I was 3, he saw me off at the space port. That was the last time I saw him," Vensu said with a sad face. "He used to be such a happy kid. Quite hyper, although I doubt you'd believe me."

Bulma attempted to picture Vegeta as a hyper little boy, the visual only made her violently laugh on the inside and shudder on the outside.

"He's so reserved now."

"I wouldn't say reserved…" Bulma said and watched Vensu laugh. She was so surprised how different Vensu was from every saiyan she'd heard of or met. Vensu didn't have a temper and was quite considerate to other people. It was odd. "Vensu?"

"Yes?"

"What does Vegeta owe you?"

Vensu looked slightly uncomfortable. " It is a little... silly. Well, before I left I gave him a flower. I told him he had to bring it back to me and save me from Sederi or I would never forgive him. But I guess he had other things to attend to..."

"Do you forgive him?"

Vensu shrugged. "It was a childish promise."

"So... Save you from Sederi?" Bulma asked, confused.

"It was an arranged matting, I didn't want to go through with it, but I had to. Just despite him I never had any kids."

"What about Bori? Isn't he your son?"

"He is, he is. I had to have a son to take the throne of our colony after me, there was no way I was letting Sederi's cousin take the job."

Bulma nodded, she almost felt sorry for her. Remembering why she came to the kitchen she stood up and walked over to the drawer, retrieving a fork.

"There we go," Bulma mumbled, shoving it in her pocket.

"What do you need a fork for?" Vensu asked.

"Oh this? I just wanted to see it I could make a TV from kitchenware," Bulma explained.

"…Why?"

"Because I can and I'm bored enough to," Bulma said with a nod. Then a thought occurred to Bulma, for no real reason, but it did. "Vensu? Have you gone Super Saiyan?"

"Super Saiyan?" Vensu asked, narrowing her eyes in a bit of confusion.

Before the answer could be given, a man appeared, literally, from the shadows. He was wearing a long black trench coat, black jeans and a black blouse. He had long black hair, messy and left down and intense black eyes. He looked like he had just woken up and gotten the worst news in the world.

They were right on the button.

"Who are you?" Bulma asked defensively, thinking maybe he was foe instead of friend.

Kokoro stared at her almost in shock. He had seen her die, sure he knew Hitomi had undone her doings, but he could still remember and Manako was still... well... cracked.

"Bulma…" In his daze he found himself walking forward to stare at her. He was truly happy right then, and then he remembered why he had come.

"How… how do you know my name?" Bulma asked, hoping if he tried anything Vensu wouldn't stall to kick his sorry ass.

"I, well, that's not important."

"I think it is."

"Through dreams then… listen. I need to find your husband."

(Meet what was originally going to be the ending of the first chapter. I really didn't want it to be that long, so instead of one it became three. Hey, who saw all those references towards 'Yume Mi'? I hope 'Creeping Death' isn't nearly as long as 'Yume Mi'. Ok, some comments: YAY! I finally got to the plot! Trunks and Goten are the funniest characters to work with, because you can take all those cute little conversations you had with your friends and write it in for them. Yeah… Anyhoo. I can't say too much. If you people are reading this without having read 'Yume Mi', I'm sure you're just that confused about who Kokoro is. If you want to know who he is, read 'Yume Mi', but it's not necessary, so you don't have too. Hum, I'm only on the 16th chapter of 'Yume Mi', isn't that funny? I'm already writing a sequel. I think that writing 'Yume Mi' has just got to the point of being boring for me, I want change, but alas, I must finish it before I post this am I getting confusing yet?. Well, I'm off then, sayonara)


	4. Dreamscape

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: Shi

The man was being oddly quiet as he sat in the corner. Things would be harder than if they could trust him. They had no clue who he was… damn it Hitomi. He looked up at the people sitting at the table. Saiyans, good ol' saiyans. They were the only ones who could do shit all for well… the world.

With a sigh the man stood up and walked over to the table, he didn't sit down though. He wanted height over them. He didn't smile, his face remained neutral, even though he felt frantic.

He cleared his throat and began. "My name is Kokoro Kurayamino… I know of you because you are Earth's saviours," he paused unsure of what to say, he hated making speeches… "I, in a way, protected the people once, not like you though, or Dende for that matter."

He looked down at the confused faces, Goku and Goten especially. The rest seemed to understand him, Vegeta and Sederi looked rather impatient.

"There is a great darkness… it kills without mercy. Its only wish is for chaos," he smiled in an almost ironic way, but soon his cold emotionless face returned to him. "She killed your only chance."

"What?" Gohan asked, the guy really wasn't making much sense; he was obviously nervous and or frantic.

"She killed the Yume Mis… uh… the keepers of the dreamscape."

"Dreamscape?"

"Yes… that's where she is, for now. I'm the last Yume Mi," he said rather bluntly, he kept staring at Gohan though. "This darkness, killed them all through a much more powerful magic than they possessed, and humans as well. The only people who can kill him… are, well, not humans."

"Why does this concern us if it's in this dream place?" Vegeta asked in his royal manner.

"Well… the dreamscape is connected to the physical plane as well. You see, there are two parts to everyone; they have their body and their soul. If this thing wins-"

"We lose our souls?" Vensu asked.

"Yes," Kokoro said looking at her with a little nod.

"Why were only you and humans affected?" Gohan asked, trying to figure this out in his head.

"Simple, this is the dreamscape of Terra, Earth."

"There's a different dreamscape to every planet then?"

Kokoro nodded yet again.

"Piccolo could help out too then," Gohan suggested.

"That makes sense," Goku chimed in, he wasn't too sure what they were talking about, but if it was a fight, all the help was needed.

Kokoro looked at them, he almost felt guilty inside. Then again… why should he? He was saving the world. They were helping. No guilt could come from victory… so maybe he wasn't guilty about asking them; maybe he was guilty about Manako.

_It's coming…_

_"What is! What is!"_

…_Death…_

That had been the first time he had talked to her since… well, since Vegeta killed her, in a sense. He thought she had gone completely mad, maybe she had, but she still kept an eye on her dreamscape. Once Hitomi died, she was the most powerful Yume Mi. Power never saved Hitomi though, it killed her, and all the other Yume Mis.

"I've got to go now," Kokoro said, snapping out of his daze. "Decide if you want to help or not, I'll be back tomorrow." He started to walk back towards the shadows.

"Wait!" The voice stopped and he swung around to see Vensu standing up, all saiyans looked at her. "Why is this thing killing?"

Kokoro looked a bit dumbfounded at the question. "You'll have to ask her."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll be back tomorrow. Right now I have to get a… friend." He could feel the smirk spread across his face then. "Decide if you want to help or not by then."

And then he disappeared into the shadows like he never existed. They all stared in the place he just was. How had he done that? Where had he gone? More importantly, should they help?

"I don't trust him," Sederi said, and stood up.

"You don't trust anybody…" Vensu mumbled and sat back down.

"I agree with him…" Vegeta added.

"Well I don't know if we should trust him yet or not, but something tells me that he's not lying," Gohan said readjusting his glasses.

"Hey… but aren't we half human?" Trunks asked looking at the rest in a confused manner.

"Maybe it doesn't matter… just as long as we have blood of another race in us."

"Does that mean I have two souls?" Goten asked.

"You are such a retard…" Trunks mumbled glaring.

"Shut up lover-boy-OW!"

"Will you shut up!" Sederi yelled at the two who instantly went silent. They didn't know how strong Sederi was, but they knew he had no control over his temper and they didn't want to find out how strong he was.

"Sederi…" Vensu groaned, banging her head on the table.

"We should help him," Goku chimed in. "We're Earth's protectors right? Well so's he, so doesn't it make sense to fight with him?"

"But we don't know if he's lying to us…" Gohan pointed out.

"True… but we won't find out if he's telling us the truth unless we decide to help him."

"You're so naïve it disgusts me Kakarot…" Vegeta scowled.

"He's the strongest out of you all?" Sederi asked, pointing to Goku in pure shock.

Vegeta glared at him.

"I think Gohan's stronger than dad…" Goten said.

"When he snaps." Trunks added.

"You two truly never grew up did you?" Gohan asked at a loss.

"Growing up is over-rated," Trunks replied.

"Yeah, and when that happens Trunks is gonna end up throwing cats at-"

WHACK

"Well I'm keeping those two brats out of this vote…" Sederi said.

"HEY!"

"I say we help." Goku said.

"I'm with my father on this one," Gohan agreed.

"I see no reason to not trust Kokoro, I say we help," Vensu added, looking up from the table.

Sederi shot her a glare. "Fine… we'll help."

"Do whatever you want," Vegeta mumbled.

"Veggie!"

Trunks and Goten almost fell off their chairs laughing at Vensu's outburst, but they kept it in for the sake of their lives.

"…Fine…"

BANG

BANG

BANG

BANG

BA-

"ONE FUCKING SECOND!" Came the singsong murderous voice from the house.

Kokoro waited patiently as he listened to about one hundred locks being unlocked and then was met with a cold and evil glare being given by a woman about 40-years-old with bright red hair and emerald eyes who glare was unmatched by even Vegeta and Sederi.

"Hello… Kokoro…" She mumbled and looked at her watch. 6:23AM. "Ohhhh, this better be good."

Kokoro stared at the saiyans and namek who stood in the lawn in front of him. Some were fathers, mothers, brothers, had sisters, had friends… were friends. He found himself almost holding back tears. He didn't know if he wanted to do this after all… it felt so wrong, he felt so guilty. He was actually holding back tears. Nin stood behind Kokoro glaring, unsure at the people in front of her, with the exception of Kokoro, she trusted no one.

When everyone said that they had to go out and 'save the world again', Bulma, Chichi and Videl all got together and were taking care of the three kids. Pan and Bori had wanted to go along actually (the two made quite a good team), but Gohan had talked them out of it. Gohan had also tracked down Piccolo and talked him into helping. For some reason Gohan, who barely liked fighting, was jumping right into this one, same with Vensu. Kokoro had an odd effect on people.

"Just some background on this girl… she knows you, she knows everything about you… She knows things about you that you don't even know," he gave a specific glance to Trunks and Goten, "and she will probably use this knowledge to her benefit," Kokoro said glumly.

"Who is this girl anyway?" Vensu asked with narrowed eyes.

Kokoro had to smile at this one. "Heh… my wife."

Everyone, including Nin, only had time to look confused before they all disappeared into the shadows.

Vegeta slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a white nothingness. He couldn't tell if he was lying down or standing up, upright or upside down. It was like he was floating in water, but had a firm holding on the ground, just basic disorientation. It took a few seconds to regain his sense and then he started to look around. He couldn't seem to find anyone and then…

"Where is everyone?" Sederi asked standing in front of Vegeta's view. Vegeta looked around once more.

"I don't know." Vegeta answered with a confused expression on his face.

"So what do we do?" Sederi was truly lost on this matter, and was hoping that his King would have some answers.

"We look for Kokoro's wife."

In another part of the dreamscape two figures were thinking the same thing.

"I think if we look around we'll find someone," Goku suggested in a bright and happy voice.

Piccolo looked annoyed with his reply. "We have no idea how big this place is."

"True… but we might as well do something to pass the time!"

Piccolo looked down at what he figured was the ground. Why the hell did he have to get stuck with the biggest moron on the entire-

"Let's-go-Picc-o-lo!" Goku beamed and began walking away. "Hey! That rhymes!"

Piccolo followed, sulking.

Trunks couldn't help but blush as he saw that he was in the middle of nowhere with Vensu. But she was too preoccupied with looking through the… nothingness to look back at him. Other than that, Trunks actually felt this uneasiness about being wherever the hell he was. It felt very, very familiar.

"We have to find Kokoro," Vensu said in a firm and determined voice.

"Huh?" Trunks asked snapping out of his starring daze.

"I don't know why we're separated from everyone… but we have to meet up. We're stronger in greater numbers."

Trunks got about half of what she said, enough to say a reply though. "Maybe it was that girls doing…"

"His wife…" Vensu drifted off in though. "Isn't that a little odd?"

"That he's married… well it came as a shocker to me, but hey, if my father can get married then anybody can."

"No…" Vensu said, trying not to laugh. "The fact that his wife is trying to destroy the dreamscape."

"Oh that!" Trunks said laughing a little nervously and blushing again. "Yes! Very odd!"

Vensu looked at him like he was crazy, but soon forgot the remark as sakura petals began to encircle them and the small figure of a woman in white came before them.

_Why… are you here Trunks?_

"Who are you?"

She grinned evilly.

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

"I think we should start walking to see if we can find anybody," Goten said hopefully. Nin glared.

"We can't be too far away from everybody…"

Nin glared.

"I guess it doesn't matter what way we go either…"

Nin glared.

"This place is pretty disorientating."

Nin glared.

"Please stop doing that…" Goten pleaded with Nin, she continued to glare. "It's even more nerve wreaking than Vegeta's glare… or Sederi's for that matter."

Nin glared. Goten felt like breaking down in fits of crying.

"Please…"

"I don't care who you are, I don't trust you," Nin finally talked as she continued to glare.

"I'm nobody really… but-" Goten paused as he felt something. Trunks' ki… Trunks' ki was out there, near by. "Let's go!" Goten shouted and grabbed Nin's hand and began flying towards Trunks' ki.

"AHH! LET ME GO!" She yelled hitting him, he barely noticed.

"So who's Manako?" Gohan asked after Kokoro had explained basically what had just happened. Kokoro had transported them here through the shadows, and Manako had split them apart.

"…My wife…" Kokoro replied as the two walked.

"The one trying to destroy the dreamscape?" Made sense now…

"Yes…" Kokoro was replying in an oddly distant way. Maybe he was worried about everyone else.

"Who was that girl with you before?" Gohan asked the question and Kokoro's eyes went wide, he didn't know how to answer that. He hadn't planned on everyone getting separated, he thought everything would go as planned and that Nin and him would be done and not have to answer any questions.

"A friend… that can help…"

And then as Gohan felt Trunks' ki appear, Kokoro felt Manako appear as well. Both knew something bad was happening, neither knew what exactly though. In a hurry to get where Trunks was, Gohan picked Kokoro up and the two started flying in that direction.

The guilt struck Kokoro really badly then.

(Foreshadowing rocks. Ok, I'm so happy. I wrote this chapter, hated it, hated the plot, deleted the chapter and started again. I like this chapter and plot so much better. Not to mention that this story will be really short like I want it to be. As you already know, this is the sequel to 'Yume Mi', it's also the most humour I've ever places into an original Fic of mine. However, I didn't want to make this Fic long because I suck at humour come hither angst and am only writing this story because I wanna write a third story. That's right, a trilogy. I'd skip to the next story right now if I could, but I kinda had to introduce the characters for the next story to be possible. It probably won't be too long either… but it will be 'Angst R' Us'! Isn't it great though? Nin is back! Nin is the greatest Kokoro excluded of my DBZ characters I made, she's all my paranoia shoved into a character, so of course I just had to strand her with Goten. Now, I'm not too sure, but I believe this will have one or two more chapters in it, won't be nearly as confusing as 'Yume Mi', and everything will undoubtedly be explained in the next chapter. On that note, for the first time a few days ago I read 'Yume Mi', and I liked it! So I edited the whole thing, changed a lot because it was written over such a long period of time my ideas changed a lot, so I re-wrote a lot of the first part and re-posted it. Ok… dunno what else to say. Please review :-D! CAO!)


	5. Nightmare

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: Go

Trunks scoffed at the pale woman in front of him. "Who do you think you are? Acting like you're better than me?"

She laughed, a sweet and beautiful clear laugh, yet the sound send shivers running down Trunks' and Vensu's spine.

_It's a shame you can't remember..._

"Can't remember what?" Trunks asked, suddenly remembering what Kokoro had said about her. How she knew everything about them, things they didn't even know themselves... Could that be possible? Trunks pushed the thought out of his mind. It didn't matter what she knew. However, he couldn't push out the fact that she seemed familiar... too familiar.

"She's toying with you," Vensu said.

_Do you want to remember?_

She asked, an evil grin on her face. She took a step towards Trunks, and Trunks quickly took a step back.

"You wanna fight me!" Trunks couldn't explain why, but he felt so completely unnerved around her. She seeped of evil and held secrets in her eyes, secrets Trunks knew she could use only to benefit herself.

_The real question is, do you want to fight me?_

"YES!" Trunks yelled as he began to power up. Vensu had to take a step back. She looked at him with awe on her face as Trunks' hair began to turn golden and although she couldn't read his power, she could tell that it far surpassed her... that it far surpassed any power that she had ever felt.

This was it, this is what Bulma had been talking about. This was a Super Saiyan, a thing of legend, standing before her eyes. Did this mean that Vegeta was one too? What about the other saiyans?

"You better believe it," Trunks said, a grin not unlike his father's on his face. "I wanna fight you."

Manako smiled.

"Goku, do you feel that?" Piccolo asked.

"Yes," Goku nodded, his face now serious. "Trunks must have found this girl."

"I can't sense her power..."

"Well she has to have a strong power."

"But we can't sense it..."

Goku and Piccolo looked at each other worried. Two things came to mind, either Trunks had powered up without having found her, or that this girl could mask her own powers. They couldn't read how strong she was.

"Manako's powers are different from yours, that's why you can't sense them." Kokoro tried explaining as they raced through the dreamscape towards Trunks.

"Trunks is pushing pretty hard, Vensu too, though she's pretty weak compared to him." Gohan said, trying to fly as fast as he could.

"The good news is that it's not a full moon. She's her most powerful she it's a full moon."

"Is there any bad news I should know of?"

"It's not a new moon either..."

"What you're telling me is that she's powerful."

"Yes."

"How powerful?"

"Out of the dreamscape you could all kill her."

"And inside?"

"... You should leave the killing part to Nin and me. We're the only people who can kill her now."

"We're almost there."

"PUT ME DOWN! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" Nin screamed, as high as she could.

Goten cringed and came to a halt, letting go of her arm.

Nin took a deep breath and threw herself on Goten, punching, kicking and swearing at him. Between all that Goten managed to make out the sentence: "don't do that EVER again" - albeit the sentence had been much longer, filled with words that Goten weren't too sure existed.

"Look, we have to get to my friend."

"No, we don't." Nin said and sat herself down.

"What are you doing!" Goten looked exasperated. "We can't just stay her, Trunks may need my help!"

"Look, I'm not here to fight. I'm here to perform a spell." She took the bookbag off of her back and began rummaging through it.

"A spell?"

"What are you? Jacob Two-Two? A spell! A spell!"

"What are you? A witch?" Goten tried to be mocking, pretty sure that he didn't like this girl.

"Yes! That is exactly what I am! And I am here to perform a spell that will kill Manako. So I stay here and do my thing and I don't care where you go, because I really don't like you!"

Goten wanted to yell back, but his curiosity got the better of him. "You do spells a lot?"

Nin rolled her eyes. "Oh my Gaia! It's like talking to a five-year-old!"

"It's Dende actually," Goten corrected her on who the proper deity was.

Nin looked up at him, a mixture of confusion and anger on her face. "That's what Kokoro says."

"He knows who Dende is?"

Nin shrugged, holding strange smelling herbs and reading a page of a book with drawing designs beyond Goten's comprehension on the bright white floor. "He knows a lot of things that I will never understand. I guess you two know each other."

"Nope, just met him. We all did."

"... Strange... The way he talked about you guys, I thought you'd worked together on something before.

Trunks didn't wait for Vensu to power up, he took it for granted that she was probably just as strong as his father was, and so Trunks didn't skip a beat. He just rushed forward and threw a punch at this strange woman with all his power. The sooner this was over, the better. He wasn't too sure if he could stand being around her any longer.

Manako didn't move, she made no reaction at all to the fist coming towards her face.

The punch found its target right in the middle of her face. Vensu was sure this girl's head would rip off, but nothing happened. The punch landed... but nothing moved. She didn't scream, didn't fly across the dreamscape, didn't die...

Trunks pulled his fist away, and Manako smiled. Her face just as perfect as it had been before.

_Well I know I'm stronger than you._

Her smile turned far more evil and faster than Vensu's eyes could see, Manako landed a kick in Trunks side, and he did go flying into the ground where he stopped, unmoving.

Vensu looked on in horror and Trunks laid there for a second and then slowly managed to lift himself up, all the while Manako laughed her terrible cold laugh.

Nausea swept over Trunks. He felt so much deja vu that moment that he couldn't just dismiss it; this place, that girl... her power. He knew it, he knew it all too well, and yet... He couldn't remember... Had he dreamt this before?

Flashes of the nightmare he had had a year before swept through his head. She was there, he was sure of it... But what had happened in that nightmare? He knew it was bad, that it had been terrible... But what had happened? Whatever it was, suddenly instinct told him that it was important.

Trunks looked up at Manako and Vensu. Why was Vensu just standing there? Why didn't she fight her? Could she even fight?

"How far can they possibly be!" Goky asked after they'd been flying for what felt like hours, they were heading towards Trunks and yet they felt like they were getting no closer. Goku had tried Instant Transmission, but for some reason it hadn't worked.

"She must be hindering us," Piccolo had said, talking about Manako. It seemed like she was still hindering them, not letting them get any closer. For all they knew they had been flying around in a circle for a month, trapped in this horrible dream.

"We're getting closer," Piccolo grumbled. "I know we are."

"I hope you're right Piccolo!" Goku said and they continued, trying to fly faster and faster.

"Are you done yet? Trunks needs me!" Goten whined and Nin still went about her business.

"No I am not done, and can't even do the spell until Kokoro makes his way here.

"He's probably going to Trunks as well!"

"He'll find me, no worries there."

"But we have to help Trunks!"

Nin looked like a nerve was about to pop in her head. "What did I say, huh! LEAVE ALREADY!"

Goten cowered away from her. "I can't leave you alone, you might get attacked!"

"I can take care of myself little boy!"

Goten could actually feel his sanity slipping away. "Boy! Look! If some crazy nightmare thing shows up and you're all alone, you'll probably die! I can't just leave you alone!"

"With the amount that you speak, I think I'd rather be dead than have to listen to you anymore!"

"Just hurry up!"

Trunks got onto his feet, feeling like he weighed 1000 pounds. Manako continued to stare at him with a playful smile on her face.

"Vensu," Trunks said, not taking his eyes off of Manako. Vensu quickly snapped out of her shock and looked towards Trunks. "If you're gonna fight, there's no better time to start."

Vensu nodded, a look of fear in her eyes. If this boy, this Super Saiyan, couldn't phase her, what chance did she have against this woman? But she couldn't just stand by, she had to fight, taking a fighting stance, she waiting for Trunks.

Trunks glared daggers at this woman. She had kicked him hard, but that was his fault, because he had let his guard down. That mistake wouldn't happen again. He wouldn't let her do that again, because now he was ready.

Without another thought Trunks launched himself at Manako and Vensu quickly followed.

Manako was ready for them, and she let it be known by her growing smile. Every punch or kick they made, she could easily block it and barely made an effort to do so, especially against the far weaker Vensu.

There was no way she could lose. Not like last time...

How easily Vegeta had killed her, too easily. With just two words he ended her life in the physical plain. But here things were different. Here she was a God among insects. Vegeta probably couldn't even hurt her here, and her son definitely couldn't even touch her.

This was her time, her age and nothing, nothing, would stand in her way now. She would get rid of these two bugs and then take care of the only real threat, Kokoro and his bitch Nin.

Yes, it was time to end this.

With her left hand, she quickly elbowed Vensu in the stomach. She didn't even look at the saiyan as she doubled over in pain, spitting blood out, and then her left palm shot to her right, hitting Trunks square in the nose and sent him flying once more.

Vensu fell to the ground, doubled over, her arms wrapped around her stomach. She could only stare at the ground in pain, watching as drops of blood fell from her mouth. She felt like she was dying. Nobody had ever hit her so hard in her entire life. She could barely believe it had happened. A lifetime of royalty had made her almost ignorant of such pain. She couldn't move it hurt so much.

Trunks, on the other hand, had felt pain like this before and probably would a hundred times more. He got up on his knees, blood poring from his broken nose. She could hit hard, that was for sure, but Trunks had to wonder if that was as hard as she could hit. They could beat her, he knew they could, because they had to.

They couldn't lose.

They can never lose.

Trunks got up, ready to kill her he was so angry, but Manako was right there, smiling her evil smile and she didn't even let Trunks stand up straight before she punched him in the stomach, and as he started doubling over, she held her hands together and brought them down on his back, sending him crashing into the ground.

_Just like old times, isn't it Trunks? Sorry if I'm not as good as Hitomi._

"Hitomi?" The name swept through his dizzy head, familiar like everything else in here, before he could think on it, Manako kicked Trunks into the hair, and grabbed his collar.

_You're pitiful Trunks. No wonder your father doesn't love you._

Trunks eyes went wide with rage and he quickly took a swing at Manako. Manako grabbed his fist with her free hand, her evil hollow eyes looking deep into his soul. She crushed his hand. Trunks screamed and that only made Manako smile ever more.

_I can't think of a better way to hurt you, than telling you the truth._

Vensu looked over her shoulder at the two figures. Trunks needed her help, but what could she do just sitting there in pain? She had to pull herself together. She had to get back on her feet. Taking a deep breath, Vensu tried to ignore the pain.

"You're in a dreamscape," she thought to herself. "This is just a dream..." She pushed herself up. "This is just a dream." She struggled to her knees. "This is just a dream." She got to her feet and looked at the two figures. Manako with her evil smile, Trunks with blood running down his face. "This is a nightmare," she whispered to herself.

Manako brought her free hand up to Trunks' forehead.

_This is going to hurt, Trunks-Kun._

"Wha-?" Trunks started asking, trying to ignore the pain he was in, but all thoughts were cut off when Manako's hand began to glow.

"LET HIM GO!" Vensu screamed, suddenly at Manako side. She punched Manako in the jaw, snapping her head to the side. Vensu paused, looking on in fear.

Manako slowly turned her head around, staring at Vensu with a look of pure detest, a bead of blood dripping from her mouth.

Vensu smiled despite of herself.

Manako didn't say a word, she quickly jabbed Vensu in the throat. Vensu staggered back, clutching her throat, unable to breath. Manako looked at her pleased for a few seconds, and then looked back to Trunks.

_Where were we, my son?_

She put her hand back up to Trunks, the light growing and growing. Trunks could only stare on in fear. Vensu looked on horrified, gasping for a breath and wanting to scream with every ounce of strength left in her.

Trunks went rigid. He wanted to get away from this girl, she was going to kill him, he knew it. He just knew that she was going to end his life. He could hear her laughter and it only intensified the fear he felt and the light became so bright that it blinded him.

Suddenly pain swept through him as a blackness overtook his eyes and he was sure he could hear his voice screaming out for help. He didn't want to die, not like this...

"Trunks," Vensu managed to gasp out, watching him scream in pain. She was killing him!

Then Vensu saw a flash, it happened so fast she wasn't even sure she had seen it, but suddenly Trunks was falling to the grounds and Manako... She saw Mananko's body get thrown from the force of a punch and then Vensu saw him standing over Trunks body, glaring at Manako's body with an intense fury that made even Vensu shudder.

There stood Sederi, and before him Vegeta, ready to kill Manako once more.

(OH MY GOD! I WROTE ANOTHER CHAPTER! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Insane laughter and ranting continues The last time I wrote a chapter was some time in September 2001. There's no good reason why it took me over two years to write chapter five, but I'm oh so happy with it. This story is rather dear to my heart and I really do want to finish it. The other day I made a list of all the stories I need to finish and this was at the top of the list - at the moment, I am also writing chapter 10 or 'Perfect World' - so who knows, maybe I just will finish all my Fics that have been seemingly abandoned for so long. Whether or not I'll be getting to that third Fic in this 'trilogy'... Thinks I'd like to, boy would I ever, but I'm not too sure if I remember exactly what I wanted to do with it. I can remember the plot, but the catalyst needs work on. Who knows. One Fic at a time, right? - Let's ignore the fact that I started writing this Fic before I even finished Yume Mi. Well this chapter was fun to write. It took me two days, only because I had to fence yesterday. I took out my Metallica CD, Ride The Lighting - it has 'Creeping Death' on it, which is actually about the 10th plague, so has nothing to do with this Fic at all - to sort of get into the mood, and then this morning I woke up with a nosebleed so I said to myself: "If my nose is bleeding, so is Trunks" Because hell, he really is my punching bag, init he? And as far as Vegeta and Sederi not being in this chapter, well almost not at all, I just wanted it to be more shocking when they show up. But fear not, there will be more of 'em next chapter! I re-edited the last four chapters as well, mostly changing all the Japanese back to English. See, I started using Japanese terms in this Fic, because they got screwed up in the last one, but then it dawned on me that it was just damn confusing, so it's all in English again. Woohoo. Ok, not too sure when the next chapter gets up, I guess it all depends on how many reviews I get I am such a review whore)


	6. Memories

(Ok children, just in case you never read 'Yume Mi', though I can't understand why you'd read the sequel before the first story, here's a quick run-down of 'Yume Mi': A girl named Hitomi starts harassing Trunks in his dreams claiming that he killed her. What she means is that he killed her in a past life. In said past life most characters were very OOC, 'cuz well, it's a past life. Manako and Kokoro were married, and their daughter was Hitomi who was dating Trunks - they were very much in love, Bulma had died and Manako was basically in love with Vegeta. The biggest thing that happened in the past life was that Trunks was raped by Goten - he was being manipulated by Marron, who was a jealous little #$$&#. In the present lifetime during the whole Hitomi thing, Manako killed Bulma, because she's jealous little #$$&#, so Vegeta killed Manako. In the end, Hitomi managed to erase that rather traumatic month from everyone's mind because she felt so guilty about all of it and those who died were brought back, though the Yume Mi's still remember. Fuck... did that make any sense? For your sake, I hope you just read the story.)

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: Roku

Vegeta took a moment and looked down at Trunks. He was lying there, motionless, his hair back to it's natural purple. He was either unconscious or... No, he wasn't dead. Vegeta looked at his face, he looked like he was in pain.

He looked over at the figure of Manako as she gracefully got back up, wiping away the extra blood that now flowed down her chin. She looked up, wanting to glare at the assailant... but when she saw Vegeta and the cold stare he was giving her, she felt her heart go cold.

_"Well, it's good that you'll be hanging out with your friends, but you're leaving me all alone with Vegeta-San."_

Snippets of the past flew through her head. They had been friends once... they had been more than friends once. They had all been friends once. Her, Trunks, Hitomi and Vegeta... but they were pulled apart. Ripped away from each other by destiny.

What they had been once suddenly didn't matter. All she saw in Vegeta's eyes was hate. He didn't remember her, he didn't remember loving her, hating her... killing her. _He_ had done this to her. It was only right that she repay the favour.

_Ohayo Vegeta-San._

She greeted him with a playful, but still evil smile.

Sederi looked to his left and found Vensu crouched on the ground, holding onto her throat, breathing in rasping breaths.

"Vensu," Sederi went over to her, concern in his eyes. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. She could breathe, but every breath hurt her throat like a knife being jabbed in there. "I am fine... but Trunks..." She looked over at the almost still figure of Trunks. She had let him down. She was useless out here, she wasn't strong enough to help them, she could barely help herself. "Sederi," she looked up at him. "We are not strong enough."

Sederi gave her a smug look, "do not be a fool Vensu."

Vensu glared at him, but said nothing. Sederi helped her up.

"Stop worrying so. We are all royalty here. We cannot be defeated," Sederi grinned smugly.

Vensu glared. "You are no royalty," she thought bitterly to herself.

"I am going to kill you," Vegeta said coldly to Manako. Mananko gave him a smirk and in the blink of an eye Vegeta was a Super Saiyan.

_You already have._

Mananko whispered softly to herself.

Sederi staggered back, his eyes almost popping out of his head. How was that possible! For sure he was a Super Saiyan, but wasn't that just a legend? Truly this man was a Prince. No, a King of all saiyans.

Vensu knew it was coming. She was almost certain that every one of these saiyans could do this.

Then Vegeta attacked.

Goten felt like his heart was stuck in his throat. Trunks' power level had just suddenly dropped. He knew he was hurt, and he had to get to him. He looked back at Nin. The woman had her things layed out before her, in one hand was some writing utensil, in the other was a bottle of alcohol. She was having just one merry old time.

He felt his blood boil.

"Sorry, but we are leaving now."

"What?" Nin looked up.

Goten walked over and started grabbing her things, stuffing them back in her bag. "We have to leave, and I don't care what you say."

"I-"

Goten grabbed the bottle from her hand and threw it away, it smashed onto the ground, breaking into hundreds of pieces of jagged glass.

"Now."

Nin quickly jammed the rest of her things into her bag and Goten quickly grabbed her around the waist, grabbed her bag and they were flying away, towards Trunks.

Goten knew that he didn't have another second to spare. Trunks could be seriously hurt or even... No. He pushed the thought out of his mind. He couldn't think like that. But the thought drove him on and he quickly became a Super Saiyan.

Nin screamed, scared out of her wits.

There she was, the love of his life.

Kokoro could feel Manako and his heart went out to her.

_"I WAS BEING STUPID! YOU WERE ALL THAT MATTERED! SUMIMASEN! KOKORO!"_

That was the last thing she had said to him as he finally turned his back on her. Finally, after so many years of waiting for her to love him... she finally had. But it hadn't been real. She was insane, driven mad by her lust for power and her regret at being defeated. She had been driven so mad that she was going to destroy everything, even herself.

He had to face her for one last time. All their lives were forfeit from this moment on.

And there she was, the love of his life. The woman he'd have to kill.

"Stop!" Kokoro yelled and Gohan did, even though he didn't want to. He could see them, right ahead, small figures fighting in an impossible vastness. The place reminded him mostly of the time chamber, but it was different. This place seemed completely empty, but it didn't feel that way. This was were dreams existed... where nightmares existed.

"Why are we stopping here?" Gohan asked, anxious to get to his friends as fast as possible.

"Nothing has happened like I planned since we got here," Kokoro mumbled, looking around with an anxious look on his face. "I need to find Nin."

"But we have to help them!" Gohan yelled, pointing at Vegeta and Manako fighting in the distance. He didn't have to be close to see that Vegeta didn't stand a chance. He was giving it his all and with the smallest of efforts she was blocking everything he threw at her.

"I know, I just... I have to figure this out. You go ahead."

Gohan looked at him for a second longer, trying to figure him out. "We can't do this without you."

Kokoro tried to smile. In his heart he knew Gohan couldn't save them. "You're not doing this without me."

"So, then what are you waiting for?"

Vegeta couldn't believe how strong she was! Every blow he dealt didn't even seem to phase her, and yet he couldn't feel her own power. It was as if she didn't even exist... and maybe she didn't. This was a dream after all, wasn't it?

_Why are you here, Vegeta-Kun?_

He didn't answer her, she was just trying to bother him, trying to distract him. he was here to kill her and that's exactly what he'd do.

_Did Kokoro drag you along?_

His leg swung out to kick her, and she gracefully caught it in her delicate hands.

_Did he tell you why? You can't possibly beat me Vegeta-Kun, not this time, and Kokoro knows that._

Her smile faded and by his leg, she swung Vegeta around and threw him away. Vegeta tried to stop himself, tried to grab onto her, but he was going to fast and soon he lost all his bearings, and then suddenly he stopped.

"Hello Manako," Kokoro said silently to the ghostly figure before him, just behind him stood Gohan, who had managed to catch Vegeta, though Vegeta had pulled away from him quite quickly, mumbling something about not needing his help and having the situation under control.

_Kokoro..._

She smiled, but her eyes seemed to dim with sadness.

_I see you're trying to play Kami again._

"I should be saying that to you."

_But you're not, you're just sneaking around my home. It's not very appreciated._

"If you didn't want us here, you should have rethought destroying the dreamscape!"

Vensu and Sederi looked on with interest as the two fought with each other. They knelt by the unconscious trunks, trying fruitlessly to wake him up, though they were both more concentrated on the ex-spouses now.

_Save the speeches Kokoro. I don't want to hear them!_

She threw her hands out and a yellow flash shot out from them and went straight for Kokoro. He held his arms up to block himself, wind seemed to swirl all around him, sweeping by and managing to knick his skin.

Manako yelled in rage and the wind seemed to intensify. It looked to everyone that it would overpower Kokoro and kill him, but what could they do? Everything they did to attack her didn't even phase her, sometimes they could get a punch in when she was totally unawares, but even then it barely bothered her.

Vegeta suddenly couldn't understand why Kokoro had asked them along. Why had he said only they could defeat her when in the end they couldn't even bruise her? Something was going on, something that he hadn't bothered to tell them and something Vegeta wanted to find out.

"KA-ME-HA-ME-HA!"

_Eh?_

Manako turned her head to the side just in time to see the Kamehameha wave coming towards her, and behind stood the Super Saiyan Goku, whom she had completely forgotten about. Manako screamed as the wave hit her and she fell violently to the ground. The wind subsided and Kokoro remained standing, looking down at Manako, small cuts on his face and arms bleeding.

"Is she dead?" Sederi asked.

Kokoro shook his head, and on cue Manako began to sit up, stretching her neck.

_I hate it when you people use those powers._

She said bitterly, glaring at Goku.

Vegeta flew forward and quickly dealt Manako a kick to the jaw, sending her flying once more. If he was going to beat her, he was going to do so while she was phased.

Kokoro turned back to Gohan, a fury in his eyes. "Go! Attack! Everyone just attack her all at once!"

Gohan nodded and followed Vegeta's lead, and then so did Goku and Piccolo. Vensu and Sederi stayed by trunks though, looking at each other for a moment. They knew she was too strong for them, they knew they were by far the weakest people here, but they knew that they couldn't just stand by and watch.

Sederi nodded, and they both flew off to help in the fray.

They landed every kick and every punch they dealt, throwing Manako around as though she were just a rag doll, completely helpless. She didn't make a sound though, didn't cry out in pain. She was collected her thoughts, and everyone else thought that maybe they were wining.

Kokoro watched on, this wasn't his fight. He turned away and looked around the dreamscape. Where in the world was Nin? If they were going to do this, it was better that they do it now.

"Blast it Nin! You're never here when I need you the most!" He yelled at the infinite space, and then he saw them, a far off spec in the distance, but he knew that it was the two remaining people, Nin and Goten. He looked back to Manako, wondering how she would react to Goten showing up. How many grievances did Manako keep locked up in that bitter old mind of hers?

Manako was growing tired of this. She looked at the faces around her and pitied them. Pitied them for their ignorance, pitied them for being used like this by Kokoro and pitied them for the deaths she was about to deal them. None of them would ever leave the dreamscape alive, and that was no lie.

Goten came to a grinding halt and before he could let go of Nin, she had already torn herself away and was running to Kokoro.

"That asshole nearly killed me!" She screamed at Kokoro. "Why'd you have to bring him along anyway!"

"Nin, there are more important things at the moment," Kokoro said under his breath.

"More important than the fact that you brought a mental patient along to save the world!"

"Yes Nin, i.e. saving said world."

Nin huffed, knowing that she didn't have much of an argument here, though that didn't stop her from still being angry with the young saiyan behind her. She turned back to him, wanting to yell at him at least one last time, and found him staring off into nothingness.

"You drag me all the way here, yelling how there was no time to waist, and now you're just gonna stare off in space!" She yelled in disbelief. "What are you even looking at!" She turned her head to follow his gaze, and then were found on the pristine white floor, the still body of Trunks. "Oh."

Nin's yelling seemed to snap Goten out of his daze and he quickly ran forward towards Trunks. He had to be alive, he just had to be alive.

"Trunks," he shook him, nothing happened. "Trunks!" He felt for a pulse, he was still alive. But why wouldn't he wake up? What had Manako done to him?

He continued to shake him, tears welling in his eyes. Nin just watched on, wondering if she should do anything.

"Nin," Kokoro said softly, she turned around. "We need to get rid of Manako, just put her somewhere else for a while. We can't beat her like this."

"But-"

"TRUNKS!"

Trunks' eyes shot open, Goten smiled, but before he could say anything Trunks was sitting up and pushing him away.

"Get the fuck away from me!" He screamed in protest, Goten could only look on confused.

"Trunks, what's wrong?"

Trunks looked around, waves of confusion washing over him. He saw the people around him, he knew the people around him, but he didn't... so many things about them seemed to jumble around in his mind. He felt nauseated; he was going to throw up. He did, and then he fell back and tried to get his mind to go still, but too many things were going through his head, so many memories trying to reach the surface.

He knew this place; he knew this place very well.

Goten looked on, not knowing what to do, not knowing if he could do anything. What the hell had Manako done to him! He felt nothing but rage surge up in him then, and then he heard a scream and turned his head to where the fight was going on.

Vensu fell to the ground, holding her arm in pain. She looked up and saw Manako smiling. Suddenly light seemed to explode from her and everyone around her was thrown back. She was done playing around, now it was time to rid them of her world once and for all.

"Nin, hurry up," Kokoro hissed under his breath, Nin was on the ground beside him, frantically scribbling things on the ground.

"Bite me Kokoro!" Nin screamed.

Manako's attention instantly went to Trunks and Goten. Goten looked at her, a mixture of confusion and anger on his face. Her real attention was on Trunks though, who was staring up into nothingness. She smiled cruelly at him and slowly began to float over towards him.

_You can remember, can't you, Trunks?_

"I can't move!" Goku yelled from behind her, she ignored him and all the rest.

Trunks looked up at Manako and felt a wave of nausea sweep over him again. He knew this place, and this woman... That woman, just a young girl in his eyes.

"Hitomi," he whispered softly, sadness in his eyes. It was Hitomi, he was sure of it. He reached out to her; all other thoughts suddenly vanished from his mind.

_No._

Manako whispered.

_You killed her, remember?_

"No." He whispered, but he could remember it suddenly, he saw it. He saw Hitomi dying before his eyes. "NOOOO!

Suddenly Manako was on him, her hand around his neck.

"NIN!"

"O gwynnwy cariadferch chan 'r breuddwydia byd. Aswyna 'ch at ad chan 'ma. Aswyna 'ch amrantun s dangnefedd." Nin began to chant beside him, Manako's head shot to the side.

_Shut up!_

"O gwynnwy cariadferch chan 'r breuddwydia byd! Aswyna 'ch at ad chan 'ma! Aswyna 'ch amrantun s dangnefedd! O gwynnwy cariadferch chan 'r breuddwydia byd! Aswyna 'ch at ad chan 'ma! Aswyna 'ch amrantun s dangnefedd!"

Manako let go of Trunks and fell onto his back, Goten was quickly beside him, pure confusion on his face now.

"O GWYNNWY CARIADFERCH CHAN 'R BREUDDWYDIA BYD! ASWYNA 'CH AT AD CHAN 'MA! ASWYNA 'CH AMRANTUN S DANGNEFEDD!"

Manako could only scream in defiance as she began to glow brightly and suddenly... she was gone.

Everyone looked around in silence, Nin fell to her hands, breathing hard.

"Is... is she dead?" Goku asked suddenly.

"No," Kokoro said quietly. "She'll be back soon."

(Mumbles something inane I just finished reading a whole bunch of reviews from 'Yume Mi' for a little feedback - just so I could maybe answer things I never fully explained in 'Yume Mi' - and I couldn't believe it, but more than half of the reviews all said: "That was an awesome story, but I didn't understand the ending". So I go look back on the ending and for the life of me, can't figure out what they don't get, but just in case my mind works a little differently from everyone else's, here's some answers to some of those irate fan's questions: Yes, all of the events in Yume Mi took place at one point or another. Now, Hitomi wanted revenge, yes? But when she finds out that she's been taking revenge on the wrong person, she feels very guilty and the only way she knows how to say sorry is to erase the memory from everyone's mind. So far so good? So in the end, nobody remembers anything, except for Kokoro and Manako, 'cuz they're Yume Mis. And yes Hitomi did in fact kill herself... twice. Now, about this chapter... I started this chapter right after I posted the last one (March 31st) and right now it's the beginning of September '04. Not too sure what happened there, though I guess it didn't help that I got a job and the local ice cream shop. So I recently sat down and made a little outline of this story, and I decided to just extend it to 10 chapters, hence why it didn't end in this one. Let's hope it doesn't take me three more years to finish it, huh? Anyhoo, Nin was chanting in Welsh by the by, not too sure why. I have been learning Welsh recently, and I do have Welsh blood in me, and it does sound rather magical, so I figured that what she'd be chanting in. Well, I have to get to work soon, I guess I better post this and go)


	7. Silence

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: Nana

Silence, for a moment, a moment to take in what had happened, a moment to realize that it wasn't over.

The silence couldn't last.

Trunks' scream ripped through the dreamscape. Goten jumped, instinctively backing away from Trunks.

Confusion erupted between all of them. Nin began to scream death threats at Kokoro, Goku, Gohan and Goten were all trying to hold Trunks down, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Vensu got back on her feet, Sederi helping her up. Vegeta and Piccolo stood watching on.

"What is going on?" Sederi asked coldly.

Vensu wanted to glare at him, wanted to yell at him that this wasn't the time to act pompous and superior to everyone else around him. Instead she pulled her arm away from him and stood on her own.

"That woman did something to him," Vensu said, to all of them, not just Sederi.

"What did she do to him?" Kokoro asked, his voice was quiet but everyone heard it. Even Trunks seemed to be listening, as he suddenly stopped screaming.

The three Sons around him let him go, backing up a little, trying to hear what Vensu had to say.

"There… there was a light, it was like she punched him with light…" Vensu wiped the blood from her mouth.

Trunks raised his head and stared at Kokoro, fear and confusion in his eyes.

"You were there… when Hitomi died…"

Goten wasn't sure what passed through Kokoro's mind at that moment, but a look of pure anger seemed to flare through his eyes and he felt his heart go cold.

Suddenly Kokoro ran forward and before anyone could figure out what he was doing Kokoro had grabbed Trunks by the collar and pulled him through…

For a moment it seemed there was a wall in the dreamscape and that Kokoro had ran through it, dragging Trunks behind, but when Goku reached out there was no wall, his hand simply extended into the white void.

For another moment there was silence.

"You asshole Kokoro! Don't you leave me here with these assholes!" Nin screamed, running forward, but Kokoro was long gone.

The world here was not so bright. There was no white here.

Trunks looked up and saw water above him. Water that lay on bed of blue and purple, green and yellow. Drips of water fell up towards it, and they also fell down.

"This is where dreams are born…"

Kokoro's voice seemed to melt in the air.

He realized that he was also lying in water. Water on the floor. Water on the ceiling. Gravity reaching its hand out to both, drops of water falling up and down…

"And this is where dreams die."

Trunks turned his head and saw Kokoro standing above him, the water seemed to avoid him.

"I'm sorry I dragged you here," he looked down at him, "but I didn't know what you were going to say."

Trunks looked like he was out of breath, he said nothing, just laid there panting.

"I can't imagine what it must feel like, to suddenly remember everything," he kneeled down. "A hundred lifetimes of memory coursing through your brain. Are you all right?"

"Who's Hitomi and why do I know who she is?"

Kokoro smiled. "My, you are confused. C'mon, sit up."

He grabbed Trunks and pulled him up into a sitting position.

"I've been here before," Trunks whispered, looking around in wonderment. He couldn't remember being there before.

"Yes, I'm sure you have," Kokoro sat beside him and the two looked at each other for what felt life ages. "Ask away. I need you in a slightly saner and calmer state."

"Hitomi."

It wasn't a question, but Kokoro answered as though it were.

"She's my daughter… she died a year ago…"

"Wasn't that her... before?"

"No, she's Manako. Remember her?"

He shook his head. "Yes…" He looked at Kokoro, an accusation in his eyes. "She's your wife… She's Hitomi's mother… She killed Bulma."

"Now that's not exactly true…"

"I saw it," Trunks want to stand up, but Kokoro pulled him back down.

"What you saw never happened."

Trunks shook his head, digging his face into his hands. He screamed as loud as he could, the frustration seeking away.

"I can remember so many faces… but I don't know who they are!"

Kokoro sighed. "Ok, let's try to start at the beginning."

"Where did they go!"

"Stop yelling at me!"

Nin and Vegeta glared at each other, each one ready to pounce, everyone else ready to jump in at any moment.

"You're holding out on things woman, now tell me where they went!"

"If I knew where they went I would have followed them you short, bitter, old man!"

Goku couldn't help but smile.

Vegeta turned his attention to Goku. "Does this really look like the time to smile!"

"Calm down Vegeta," Goku's smiled slowly fell.

"Fighting amongst ourselves won't do any good. We still have that woman to worry about!" Gohan remind all of them.

"From the looks of it, we don't stand a chance against her," Piccolo said, his face grim. "I don't know why Kokoro even asked for our help."

Nin seemed to tense up.

"What? What aren't you telling us?" Sederi asked, stepping towards Nin.

"Sederi…" Vensu started to protest, and as usual she was ignored.

"I know there had to be another reason we were asked to come here," Vegeta said, ice in his voice.

"Hey, leave her alone," Goten stepped forward, but Vegeta stopped him with a glare.

"Start talking."

"I don't know what you're-"

"TELL US NOW!"

"Look, Kokoro's plan is just a mystery to me."

"No it isn't."

"He just asked me to come along and help, just like you."

"I am about to get very angry."

"Let me guess, I wouldn't like it when you're angry?"

"Okay, that's enough" Gohan stepped in between the two, pushing Vegeta away. "This isn't helping – at all! Especially seeing if it wasn't for her, that woman would still be here kicking our collective asses!"

"Yeah!" Nin was tempted to stick her tongue out in triumph, but decided against it after another glare from Vegeta.

"Fine, act this way all you want, but I know you're lying about something."

"My god you're an ass. Why does anyone put up with you?"

"So… it was all a dream?"

"No, what happened with Hitomi did happen… it was just erased from… well… everything." Kokoro finished explaining.

"Why would she do that?" Trunks asked. His mind felt calmer, but it still seemed like there was a fog over every memory. Lives unfinished, things half said. He could remember hunting antelope on an open plain with a bow as clearly as fighting Buu.

"Have you ever done or said something you wished you could take back?"

"Well… yeah, I guess…" Hundreds of things came to mind.

"Well, she could. She felt regret, and she acted on it."

"But I…" He hung his head, staring at his feet, emotions overwhelming him. "I can remember loving her."

"I bet you can remember hating her just as much in this life."

Trunks raised his head; his eyes were red, full of anger. "No… this is stronger than that. I think I really, really loved her…"

"You did. You two were really in love."

"And she's dead."

"She's dead."

"And she wouldn't even leave me one single memory."

"She left you a dream."

"She left me a nightmare!" Trunks wanted to start screaming again, but instead he continued to glare at Kokoro, the only one close enough for him to take his frustrations out on. "Cut up images running through my head and all I could make out from them was death!"

"Look, I can't justify her actions any better than you can!"

Trunks couldn't think of anything to shoot back, the outburst had taken him by surprise.

"Now you need to sort through these memories because Manako is going to come back and find your friends and she will kill them! Can I trust that you will at least be quiet about all of this?"

His friends… Their faces ran through his head. They seemed so close and yet so distant, like they could have been in a life he'd lived a thousand years ago… But there was something else, something dark…

"Goten… Goten's there."

"Yes, Goten's…" Kokoro trailed off. The look in Trunks' face said it all, a scared confusion. "Look, this is one of those memories you need to get in check."

"It's so confusion. So many good memories… and so many bad ones… I can't deal with this…" Trunks buried his head in his hands again, though this time he stayed silent.

"I swear everything will be just fine again, but I can't help you at all until we get out of this dreamscape."

"… You're going to take my memories away?"

"Yes."

Trunks looked up again. "Even my memories of Hitomi?"

Kokoro was silent for a long time. No words seemed to work to explain this to him properly. "It would be the only way to set things straight again."

Trunks didn't answer, instead he asked another question. "How are we going to kill… Manako?" He almost said Hitomi.

"You remember Nin?"

"Isn't she dead?"

"No, that didn't happen, remember?"

"Right… Hitomi erased that."

"Nin is a witch, a very good witch, and she's going to perform a spell that will…" He didn't want to say the word kill, not about Manako, not about the love of his life. "It will get rid of her. For good."

"Just a simple spell, then why didn't you do it before?"

"It's a little complicated. Something specific has to happen first."

"What has to happen?"

"Let's just go back, it will al make sense when it happens."

Trunks shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me."

"I can't."

"Then I'm going to tell all of them my memories!"

"What good would that do?"

"Hopefully none! And seeing you don't want me telling them so badly, then just tell me!"

"Trunks, you don't want to know!"

Kokoro thought Trunks was going to yell at him again, but Trunks answered very slowly and very calmly.

"Don't you dare tell me what I do or do not want to know. Who the hell are you people to decide our fates for us anyway?"

"You'll hate me."

"Kokoro, I don't even like you."

"For the spell to work…" Don't say it, for the love of Dende don't say it. "For it to work… Manako needs to kill someone."

(So apparently it takes LS over a year to write a fucking chapter! Well, actually it took me a couple of hours to write this… BUT over a year to get motivation to do it. After I wrote the last chapter I made an outline for the four remaining chapters, and of course have since lost said outline, but I knew what was going to happen in this chapter… and have the vaguest ideas of what will be happening in the next few. I have no idea if this is going to be 9 or 10 chapters. We'll see, shall we? Unless you're reading this after it's been posted, then you already know. Also, I retract my earlier statement about reading 'Yume Mi', read it, because if you haven't you MUST be confused. And the mystical third book in this trilogy? I really doubt that one's gonna happen…. Oh dear lord I'm tired. It's 3 a.m. and LS needs sleep! Tomorrow I should re-edit the last 6 chapters and post this. Happy Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza to all, and to all a good night!)


	8. Bothered

_I am known as many things, but to you, I'm your creeping death._

Bubun: Hachi

Trunks buried his face in his hands.

"I'm having trouble… working things in my head. What did you just say?"

Kokoro really wished that he could just abandon Trunks in this layer of the dreamscape, but that would throw everything off.

"The spell… the only spell to defeat Manako requires her to…"

"Kill someone?" Trunks looked up confused, his memories shifting. "You were crying when Hitomi died."

Kokoro felt his heart go cold. "It never happened."

"Yes it did."

"You're getting way off subject here."

"I remember it. We were here, in this place… but white. Everything was white…"

"You remember a lot of things, but most of those never happened to you! Do you understand that? They are past lives, stolen memories and you should not have them!" Kokoro was losing his temper.

"And you shouldn't have lied to us! You brought us here to die!" Trunks was on his feet. He felt dizzy and confused, but this one moment seemed clear. "Take us home!"

"I can't!" Kokoro screamed at him and Trunks went still. "Bringing you in here was the last thing I was able to do. This is Manako's Dreamscape, she controls everything here now. There is no way in or out, except for killing her. You were the only people I could bring because your blood is not of this world. I had no choice!"

"You could have not brought us to our execution!"

"Then the world would have died! I made a choice! It was a terrible choice, but it was one I had to make! This is who I am! This what I do! I am a Yume Mi and I need to protect you!"

"This is not protection," Trunks almost doubled over in pain. He wanted to scream as unwelcome memories shot through his. "You stood by and watched them die…"

"That did not happen!!!" Kokoro screamed again, ready to strike out at Trunks.

He could remember what he was talking about, about standing by and letting Hitomi kill without mercy. That was in the past though, a past that did not exist. Those people he had let die were alive again.

"Take me back to my friends."

"Trunks… you can't speak of any of this to them."

"So why let me go back at all?" Trunks glared.

"Because of what happened a year ago."

"With Hitomi?"

"Listen, there's a lot more to this spell than Manako killing someone. Once she has done that, Nin needs to carry out her spell, and you… and only you… needs to give the final blow."

"… Why?"

"I'm afraid it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense at the moment."

Nin sat a little ways away from the rest of the group, grinding her herbs and concocting a potion. Every once in a while she would look up and try to ignore the various glares and looks of curiosity shot towards her.

She was trying to ignore them so badly that she barely noticed when Gohan walked up to her and sat down.

Immediately Nin put down the bottle she was holding and glared at him.

"What? Now you want to interrogate me?"

"No, I was just curious about what you were making," he said quietly.

"You wouldn't understand it."

"Try me."

"I would never give away my secrets."

Gohan sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Well, can you tell me how the spell works then?"

Nin paused, wondering just how much she could say. A part of her wanted to explain things, because a part of her found Gohan familiar. Trustworthy?

Ha, she didn't trust anyone. She barely trusted Kokoro.

"It's a straightforward spell. Upon his signal I speak the words and poor the potion."

"His signal?"

"Kokoro's. He said he'd give me a signal on when exactly to use it," Nin began measuring some herbs she had just ground.

"What signal?"

"He didn't say."

"Not even a hint?"

Nin felt her fingers tightening into a fist. She couldn't concentrate like this.

Gohan was starting to feel her tense up. "Sorry, I can see you're busy."

"I am."

He stood up, ready to leave. "Look, I know something's bothering you."

"Yeah, you," she added some liquid to her bottle of herbs and it all turned purple.

"Be serious."

Nin looked up at him, a calm anger in her eyes. "I am always serious."

"You can tell me what's bothering you."

"Why? Why would I tell a perfect stranger something that was hypothetically bothering me?"

"Because this concerns all of us. If this fails, we all die. You, me, Kokoro, the short, bitter man."

Nin seemed to consider this for a moment. "This won't fail. You don't need to worry about that," a cocky smile spread across her face. "I don't fuck up my spells."

"Then what is it?"

She put the bottle down. There really was something about him. Had she maybe met him before? Wouldn't she have remembered that? "Once you've done as many spells and positions as I have, you get a good idea about what happens when you put certain things together, say certain words."

"And?"

"And this spell is supposed to kill Manako, right?"

"Right."

"But as far as I can tell this spell won't kill anything, but it may create something."

"Create something? To do what?"

"I don't know; that's what's bothering me."

Suddenly Kokoro was standing in their midst, Trunks crouched by his feet, muttering something to himself.

Nin sighed, "Took you long enough, asshole…"

"Trunks!" Gohan, Goku and Goten all yelled in unison.

Goten was by his side almost instantly, grabbing his shoulders. "Are you ok!?!"

Trunks felt dizzy for a moment. He looked at Goten and his heart froze. This is the boy who hurt you more than anyone else, and this is the boy who is your best friend in the whole world.

Two completely different lives clashing in his brain. Which life was which? When did he hate him? When did he love him?

Instinctively Trunks pushed Goten away and got to his feet.

Goten looked up, slightly confused. Was something wrong with Trunks? What had they been talking about?

"I'm fine," he turned to Gohan, then looked over at his father.

Vegeta stood there, expressionless. Uncaring?

Trunks wanted to run at him, scream at him. _"Why did you leave me!?!"_ But he knew that that was a different life.

"We don't have a lot of time left. Frankly I'm surprised that Manako hasn't come back," Kokoro began explaining, ignoring the questions he was getting about his whereabouts. "Nin, is that spell ready?"

Gohan shot a glance at Nin, who simply nodded her head. "A masterpiece, if I may say so myself."

"Well, we'll see."

"Can you tell where Manako is now?" Piccolo asked, walking up to Kokoro.

"I have vague notions…"

"Vague notions?"

"I know she's out there, know she's close…"

"Well that's helpful information," Sederi spoke up, an angry look on his face.

"Leave it Sederi," Vensu protested, but Sederi quickly turned on her as well.

"I will not! I am sick of this! We got dragged into this and are being kept in the dark! If you want our help, you need to start being a lot more straightforward with us!"

In some ways they all agreed with Sederi, but no one really wanted to speak up.

Nobody had time to.

They didn't realize why Goku was screaming at first. They looked over, saw him fall to the ground, holding his stomach in pain. They saw blood pooling off of his arms and forming a puddle, but they didn't know why.

The figure behind him blended so well into the white that they didn't see Manako until she began to speak.

_That was a dirty little trick Kokoro._

They saw her then, and the blood on her hand, and they understood. They didn't want to believe it, but they understood. She had stabbed Goku through the back using only her hand.

"Dad!" Gohan yelled and ran forward, punching Manako as hard as he could. She caught his fist, not even bothering to look at him.

_I'm in the middle of a conversation, you insolent boy._

She threw Gohan towards Piccolo, they impacted and fell to the ground unmoving.

_Your taste in friends really has gone down the drain, a drunken paranoid, an imbecilic alien._

Manako shot a glance at Goten, standing ready to fight. She grinned.

_A rapist._

"What?" It was the only word that Goten could think to say.

_Trunks, you know what I'm talking about. You remember now._

Cold. Dark. Alone. Fear. Pain.

Kokoro attacked before Manako could say another word, and to everyone's surprise when he punched, she flinched in pain. But a flinch is hardly a victory.

Dec/05

(I've been going through a lot of writing files recently and found this tucked away in some folder. I don't know why I never finished it, I don't know why I don't finish most things, but I know I really won't finish this. I do now that a few days later I started my second semester of college, so I must have gotten sidetracked. I kind of gave up on FanFiction about a year ago. No, that's not right, I more outgrew it. I just want to concentrate on my own writing. Anyway, I felt I should post this because if I'm never going to finish it I might as well post all that I have. If you want to know how it all ended, drop me a line. I'll be more than happy to give you guys a detailed outline.)


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